This invention relates to the field of audio engineering and more particularly to an improved audio mixing console.
An audio mixing console is an electronic apparatus having a plurality of audio input signals, denoted input channels, and producing a plurality of audio output signals, denoted output channels, the number of output channels being generally fewer than the number of input channels. Each mixing console comprises a plurality of input and output modules, each module corresponding to a single input or output channel. The output signals from one or more input modules may be combined at an output module to form a single audio output channel from the console.
Typical applications for a mixing console include sound production at a concert and sound recording at a recording studio. Two types of mixing consoles are used at a concert: one to mix the house sound broadcast to the audience, and one to mix the monitor sound broadcast through monitor speakers to musicians. In all cases, the input channels on the mixing console are connected to a microphone or a musical instrument. At the mixing console the input signals are processed according to the command of a sound engineer and passed to the output channels for appropriate use. In the case of a concert, the audio signal derived from an output channel ultimately passes to an amplifier which drives speakers, broadcasting the audio signals to an audience or to the musicians. In the case of a recording studio, the audio signal typically passes to a tape recorder.
Each input and output module on the console comprises independent electronics for processing the associated signals. Typical signal processing includes filtering, attenuation and amplification of the signal, as determined by a series of control elements, such as potentiometers and switches, to obtain desirable output signals. By skillful use of a mixing console, a sound engineer, for example, eliminates undesirable noise components, makes tone adjustments and adjusts the level of each input signal to obtain output signals which combine at the ear of a listener, when broadcast through speakers, to produce a balanced, satisfying sound.
Problems which can arise with the use of typical prior art mixing consoles are best demonstrated by a description in greater detail of a process for utilizing an audio mixing console. Large mixing consoles are frequently employed as the central feature in a sound reproduction system for the house sound at a concert presented by one or more groups of musicians. Mixing consoles are also employed to mix the monitor sound at a concert. Mixing consoles utilized in a sound reproduction system at a concert must be readily transportable and hence are distinct from mixing consoles found as permanent fixtures in a recording studio. A typical sound reproduction system for the house sound, in general terms, comprises input devices, a mixing console, external processing equipment, amplifiers, and speakers. Similarly, a sound reproduction system for the monitor sound, in general terms, comprises the same input devices used in the house sound system, a mixing console, external processing equipment, amplifiers, and monitor speakers.
The input devices are generally located on a stage with the musicians. In most cases, the input devices comprise microphones positioned adjacent to musical instruments so as to detect the sounds emanating therefrom, or microphones arranged for voice pick-up from vocalists. In some cases the input devices comprise direct electrical connections to certain musical instruments, such as electric guitars. In all cases each input device is connected via electric cable to an independent input channel on the mixing console.
The large mixing console for the house sound may typically provide twelve or more individual output signals, each of which corresponds to a single output module of the console. Some or all of these output signals may pass through external processing equipment, such as an echo device, a reverberation device, or a digital delay device, which provides special effects to the output signals.
From any external processing equipment which may be used in the system or, if none, from the output of the mixing console, the output signals are directed by electric cable to amplifiers, which are generally positioned on the stage immediately behind the speakers. The amplifiers drive the large speakers which broadcast the music to the audience or the musicians. Typically, the speakers for the house sound are arranged in two stacks, one stack on each side of the stage, although a variety of other speaker arrangements are often used in conjunction with the two stacks. The musicians are generally positioned on the stage between and behind the two speaker stacks. Monitor speakers are arranged in any configuration necesssary to ensure that each musician can hear his own voice or instrument.
The large mixing console itself can typically be a very complex electronic apparatus, the complexity arising primarily from the great number of adjustable electronic control elements found thereon. These control elements may comprise switches, buttons, dials, or any other electronic control elements. A typical module of the mixing console may comprise in excess of thirty-two such control elements, and the large mixing console for the house sound may easily comprise in excess of thirty such modules. Hence, the sound engineer on the house mixing console may have more than 960 distinct control elements which must be adjusted to obtain the desired output signals. The monitor mixing console, although typically having fewer modules than the house mixing console, also comprises a large number of distinct control elements which must be adjusted.
Typical musical concerts often have two or more musical groups scheduled to perform consecutively. In the afternoon prior to an evening performance, each group appears on the stage for a sound check, usually in the reverse order of the evening performance. The sound check procedure enables sound technicians, including the sound engineers positioned at the mixing consoles, to preset the sound equipment, particularly the many control elements on the mixing consoles, for the performance that evening. Any given arrangement of control element positions for a single group is denoted a console setup. During the sound check procedure, the sound engineers must determine a console setup for each group performing that evening.
After the control elements on the consoles have been adjusted for the first group at the sound check, the position of the many control elements must be recorded in some fashion for later recall at the time of performance. Recordation of a console setup sometimes takes the form of a piece of tape at each control element on the consoles with an appropriate mark on each piece of tape indicating the desired position. Other times one of the sound technicians must record each position on a handwritten chart or with a portable tape recorder. In both cases, the object of the recordation process is to enable the sound engineer to recall as quickly and easily as possible the optimum control element positions determined during the sound check.
The lack of a quick and efficient means for recording the control element positions renders both the sound check and the actual performance setup a time-consuming, cumbersome process. As the number of groups performing at a single concert increases, the task of recordation becomes a greater burden. It should also be evident that the present system of recordation is prone to a substantial number of errors, which translate into a poorer quality concert.
Hence, the known prior art audio mixing consoles designed for use outside of a recording studio do not provide adequate means for recordation and subsequent recall of the positions of control elements on the mixing console.